James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

This company of nearly 200 people takes up several floors of a gorgeous old brick building in downtown Cincinnati.

Above, Phillip Freer, who was a student in my recent painting workshop, is one of the top creative directors at FRCH. He brings to the table a wide range of experience in the themed entertainment sector, having worked as a Senior Concept Designer for Walt Disney Imagineering.

The designers work in the realms of architecture, interior design, and graphic design to create total environments in the retail, restaurant, hotel, and theme park arenas. By coordinating all their creative expertise, they’ve designed retail stores for the Disney theme parks, or restaurants for American Girl.

I arrived about an hour early for my lecture presentation. There was a nice café across the street, so I thought I’d do a sketch of the old red building that houses the company.

Instead of just doing a straight architectural portrait, I wanted to come up with a clever idea for a fantastical sketch. But my mind went blank, as if some monster robbed all the good ideas out of my head.

Then I thought: What if there actually was an Idea Monster that stole good ideas? It would sit blocking the road, and kidnap all the fresh, original ideas that came rolling along. It would let through only the stale, tired old clichés.

Luckily there’s a way to get rid of the idea monster. If you leave a row of Skittles candies on the sidewalk, that lures away the monster away, so he’ll go bother someone else.

Well, it just so happens that in the lobby of FRCH, they have a candy machine with free Skittles. So maybe that’s the secret to all the innovative ideas at FRCH!

By the way, here’s how the sketch looked at an early stage, with just loose watercolor washes, before the linework.